Facebook Staff Defacing 'Black Lives Matter' Slogans

Facebook is investigating what USA Today reports are "racially charged incidents" at its Menlo Park, Calif., campus. In an internal memo obtained by Gizmodo, Mark Zuckerberg says there have been "several recent instances" where employees crossed out "Black Lives Matter" on campus walls, where writing is encouraged, and replaced it with "All Lives Matter." The CEO says he made it known last week that such behavior didn't fly, but the problem continued. "I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before … I now consider this malicious as well."

Zuckerberg adds this is a "deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community." About 2% of Facebook employees are black. "Crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person's speech is more important than another's," he says. Zuckerberg notes a town hall is planned for March 4 to teach employees about the Black Lives Matter movement. It "doesn't mean other lives don't [matter]—it's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve," he says. (More Facebook stories.)